1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electric field measurement. More specifically, the invention is a method and system for making quantitative measurements of electric fields to include magnitude and direction thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Article and personnel inspection systems and methods range from labor-intensive and intrusive manual searches to mechanized systems that use non-intrusive x-ray or electromagnetic wave imaging to expose concealed articles, damage, etc. For example, most weapons detections systems rely on the concealed weapons having x-ray absorption greater than the concealing articles or the concealed weapon and having electrical conductivity large enough to be detectable by radiated electromagnetic waves. Articles that are outside the inspection capability of current inspection systems are net identified. Weapons such as ceramic knifes or plastic guns (with little or no metal content) or disassembled distributed weapons are undetectable by current day non-intrusive inspection devices. These are low density system or systems that have been made from low density materials or made low density by distributing components through a larger volume.
In another example, the degraded electrical properties of insulation surrounding conduction wires is known to have caused fatal aircraft crashes. To date, there are no inspection systems capable of non-intrusive quantitative detection and characterization of insulation degradation. Current insulation integrity systems do not measure the dielectric properties of the insulation which must be known to determine the breakdown limits of the wire-insulator system.